Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear air conditioner for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a rear air conditioner for a vehicle, which includes: a discharge module mounted at an air outflow port of an air-conditioning case and having a discharge case and a rotary mode door; two face vents formed at both side walls of the discharge case; a floor vent formed at the center of the discharge case; and an air mixing zone formed inside the rotary mode door.
Background Art
In general, an air conditioner for a vehicle is a car part, which is installed in a vehicle for the purpose of cooling or heating the interior of the vehicle in the summer season or the winter season or removing frost from a windshield in the rainy season or the winter season to thereby secure a driver's front and rear visual fields. Such an air conditioner typically includes a heating device and a cooling device together, so that it can heat, cool or ventilate the interior of the vehicle through the steps of selectively introducing the inside air or the outside air into the air conditioner, heating or cooling the introduced air, and blowing the heated or cooled air into the vehicle.
A conventional air conditioner for a vehicle is a front air conditioner in which air for cooling or heating is discharged from a discharge port formed in an instrument panel of the front part inside the vehicle. Therefore, some of luxury cars or SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles) having a wide interior space cannot sufficiently provide the cooling or heating effect to the rear seats.
Therefore, in order to promote the cooling and heating performances to the rear seats in the case of the luxury cars or SUVs having the wide interior space, as shown in FIG. 1, a rear air conditioner 1 is additionally installed above a rear wheel cover 5 of the vehicle.
The rear air conditioner 1 includes an air-conditioning case 10 having an air inflow port (not shown) formed at one side of a scroll case 11 disposed at an inlet and a plurality of air outflow ports 16 formed at an outlet; an evaporator 14 and a heater core 15 spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval in order inside the air-conditioning case 10; a temperature-adjusting door (not shown) mounted between the evaporator 14 and the heater core 15 for adjusting temperature by controlling a mixed amount of cold air and warm air; and a mode door (not shown) mounted at the air outflow port 16 for controlling the degree of opening of the air outflow port 16 according to air-conditioning modes.
Moreover, an air blower 20 for inhaling air from the air inflow port and blowing the inhaled air to the inside of the air-conditioning case 10 is mounted inside the scroll case 11.
The air outflow port 16 includes: a face vent 17 for blowing the air heat-exchanged inside the air-conditioning case 10 toward the upper body of a passenger through a roof inside the vehicle; and a floor vent 18 for blowing the heat-exchanged air toward the passenger's feet.
Therefore, the air blown through the air blower 20 is supplied to the inside of the air-conditioning case 10 along the inner wall surface of the scroll case 11.
Continuously, the air supplied to the inside of the air-conditioning case 10 is cooled while passing through the evaporator 14, and after that, bypasses the heater core 15 by the temperature-adjusting door or passes through the heater core 15.
The cold air bypassing the heater core 15 and the warm air passing through the heater core 15 are mixed together, and then, the mixed air is discharged to the inside of the vehicle through the face vent 17 and the floor vent 18.
Furthermore, the rear air conditioner may have one or two face vent 17 according to structures and forms of vehicles.
That is, as shown in FIG. 1, in case of the structure to discharge air toward the inside roof of the vehicle, because one roof duct is connected, one face vent 17 is formed, but as shown in FIG. 2, in case of the structure to discharge air toward the left and right sides inside the vehicle, because left and right ducts 30 and 40 are respectively connected, two face vents 17a and 17b are formed.
However, the rear air conditioner shown in FIG. 1 is favorable in mixability because there is just one face vent 17, but the rear air conditioner shown in FIG. 2 has several disadvantages in that the size of the air conditioner is increased because the two face vents 17a and 17b are formed in different positions, in that there is a large temperature difference between the air discharged to the left side and the air discharged to the right side inside the vehicle because the air discharged toward the face vent 17a and the air discharged toward the face vent 17b are not mixed, and in that the number of components and the manufacturing costs are increased because two mode doors (not shown) are needed to open and close the two face vents 17a and 17b. 